Railway coaling terminal



ci. 28 s 1924 S. OTIS RAILWAY, COALING TERMINAL Filed Dec. 1'7, 1921Patented @et 28, 1924i.

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SPENCER OTIS, 0F CIK-ICAG, LLINCS,

Application ledgecsin'ber 17, 1921.

T 0 all ywhom t may concern.'

Be it known that l, SPENCER Ortis, a citizen of the United States,residing atChicago, in the county of Cook yand State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Inoprovements in Railway CoalingTerminals, of which the following is a specification.

The primary object of the invention is to .provide a coaling plaint ofimproved construction and arrangement, which, while occupying a minimumof ground area,

will instantly and with no cost for power, receive andA safely store inbulk, tonnage of coal required to vmeet demands over protracted periodsof time; also nstantly and without cost for power deliver any requirednumber of-sub-divided charges of such coal, of pre-measured volumetoasmany different locomotive tenders or other vehicles through which thecoal is made available atplaces of consumption; andpermit, at the willof the operatives, at convenient times and with economy in theexpenditure of power,the selective replenishment of subdivided andmeasured charges so that they will be kept ready for such delivery.

Another object of the invention isto provide means whereby in a plantarranged as aforesaid, the measurementvof the sub-divid` ed charges maybe ascertained in terms of weight by weighing' the coal in transitlbetween the bulk storage spacel and the containers of the sub-dividedcharges permitting a record to be kept in terms of weight, of coaldelivered to different vehicles.

In carrying out the invention, dump car trackage is provided and beneaththis trackwith the `capacity stored and of a construction which permitsthe coal to be submerged in water and thus protected not only fromspontaneous combustion, but from external lignition and therebyadmitting of the passage of locomotives over Vthe dump car trackagebot-h for drawing dump cars to the point of discharge and for fillingthe tenders of locomotives in case it becomes necessary at any one timeto vincrease the charging capacity beyond that of the means fordelivering the pre-measured sub-divided charges; supports, for instancein the form of structural framing arises from the sides of the storagebunker and therefore, on either side of the dump car trackage and uponthis framing, are mounted, at successive elevations, first a series ofAup such coal and l y :tenders of locomotives occupying the dump SerialNo. 522,979.

pockets of selected capacity to receive and hold the pre-measuredcharges of coal at an elevation which permits of automatic andinstantdelivery by gravity into tenders or other vehicles passingbeneath the pockets 4andalong side `the framing, and secondly,

.of pick up and deposit being adapted'to serveythe.purposestof pickingup coal from the bunker and depositing it in any one of' .theseveralpockets, selectively, and picking depositing .it into the car trackageincase of necessity. The structural framing extends upwardly to thecrane trackage, in a plane outsideof the opening. ythrough which the'pockets' are and thus gives the trolley a range of travel which fenables the bucket to be brought. to any of the several positions named.

In order thatthe invention may be fully understood, I will proceed to adetailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof; referencebeingmade to the accompanying drawing, in which- Figures 4l, 2,' and 3,are,respectively, a plan view, a side elevation, and a vertical,

Vtransverse section of a railway terminal embodying the several featuresof the invention.

Vl represents a surface level track over which material, such as coal,may be brought in from any distance in standard dump cars A; and 2represents 'a subsurface storage bunker adapted to receive the material,by gravity, fromV said dump cars. Bunker 2 may be supplied with water,as, for instance, through hydrant 3 to render safe from sponaneouscombustion or external ignition coal stored indefinitely therein.- Toremove coal from bunker 2, a grab-bucket or other lifting receptacle 4is suspended from a crane, as, for instance, from the trolley 5 runningon bridge 6 which traverses the tracks 7 and thus adapts the bucket todischarge into any one of a series of provisional containers ordistributing pockets 8. Containers 8 are above a delivery track 9, whichis preferably on surface level or suitably connected therewith, and areadapted to deliver into a transport vehicle B presented on track 9beneath them. Vehicle rB is shown as a road surface vehicle, but it isto be taken as typi-ying any vehicle that it may be desired to load fromthe pockets, and the track or way 9 is to be taken as the equivalent ofa rail-equipped track if it be desired to present locomotive tendersbeneath the pockets. Y

By having the pockets 8 overhang the storage chamber 2 as shown, surplusor overiiow coal returns to the latter.

By having an electric Weighing device l0 interposed in the lifting cableand adapted to be read upon the ammeter in the en gineers cage l1, theweight of material deposited into each pocket 8 can be determined intransit, and since the crane deposits in the individual pocketsselectively, a record can be kept or' the contents of each and render itunnecessary to Weigh the load deposited into avehicle B.

v .Structural framing 12-13 rises from the lateral contines of thebunker 2 and therefore from either side of the dump car trackage 1, theframing 12 being between the bunker 2 and the track 9. This framingrises not only to the level at which it supports the individualcharge-pockets 8, but beyond the same Lat least to a level whichaccommodates the bridge tracks 7 and as shown more clearly 8 extend wellwithin the tracks 9 and the track 7 Aso that the bucket 4 can travel toa 'point outer'side of the framing 4l2.

above any pocket in the series; but the lower discharge ends of thesepockets are on the By an arrangement such as here described,

the purposes of theinvention can be fully realized in a simple andefcient manner, with a minimum of expenditure of power and minimum lossottime of the conveying vehicles.

Obviously, the subsurface storage bunker may be subdivided intocompartments for the storage of different classes of coal. When sosubdivided the partitions may be such as to admit water from onecompartment to another (say, through the spacing of the partition vfromthe bottom of the bunker) or the partitions may be tight so that waterstorage'will be available for those classes of coal which are moreliable to spontaneous combustion, while other classes are dry stored.v

in Fig. 1,'the open tops oli' the pockets Y I claim: "r"

1. A coaling station comprising surfacelevel supply trackage for coaloarryingcars, a sub-surface pit of major capacity receiving coal bygravity from cars standing on said trackage, and coal distributing meanscomprisingv supports rising above said pit and` trackage, open topdelivery bins of minor capacity mounted 'on said supports at anintermediate level and a bucket handling crane surmounting saidsupports, over-traveling the storage pit, the cars on said Vsupplytrackage and the delivery bins; said pit 'and bins being offsethorizontally one from the other, whereby thehoisting bucket has verticalaccess to said pit, to cars on said trackage and to all of said bins.

2. A. coa-ling plant comprising a dump car trackage, a subsurfacestorage bunker con- Y structed and proportioned to confine and affordprotective storage to coal in tonnage (bulk, located beneath and in thedirection of said trackage and receiving by gravity, into storageposition, said trackage; supports rising from said bunker on either sideof said dump car trackage, distributing trackage for coal receivingvehicles extending along the outside of one of said supports; a seriesof pockets extending along said supports, adapted lto contain charges of coal, and mounted on said Vsupports at anl intermediate level thereof,

said pockets having upwardly presented re.-y ceiving openings on theinner Vside of said supports and downwardly presented delivery openingson the outer side thereof, over the distributing trackage; crane-bridgetracks rmounted on said supports vparallel with said y series of pocketsbut at a level above theA same, one of said tracks being in a verticalplane outside the receiving openings of the pockets; a bridge mounted onsaid bridge tracks adapted to bepbrought over any pocket in the series;a trolley on said bridge; andy a bucket having elevating connectionscarried by said trolley and adapted to be, by said trolley, presented tobulk coal in'said bunker, also to any pocket over which the bridge isstanding and to any open top coal' carrier occupying the dump cartrackage.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 15th day of December, 1921. y v

SPENCER oris'.

coal from dump cars on

